


Catching Quadrants

by trypophobicCanine



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, F/M, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Gen, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-01
Updated: 2013-04-01
Packaged: 2017-12-07 05:25:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/744766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trypophobicCanine/pseuds/trypophobicCanine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where SBURB/SGRUB never happened, and Eridan's trying to make friends and maybe more with the canon trolls he meets as the story progresses. Kismesissitude, auspisticism, moiraillegiance, and matespriteship; which quadrants will be filled, and which will be left over? And will he ever get back together with Feferi?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tired Is the Worst Kind of Lonely

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eridan's been quite lonesome since Feferi dumped him as a moirail, and he's been losing sleep. He decides to go into the capitol city of Western Alternia to see the sights and maybe get his mind off Fef.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Lotifewich" (pronounced as Lo-ti-fe-wik) is an ambigram of "Witch of Life" and is the royal city where the Empress and Feferi live.
> 
> starts off a bit slow, but picks up a bit more in the next chapter.
> 
> edit 4/18/13: i edited the beginning of the chapter... i had forgotten that trolls don't sleep in beds

**Chapter 1 - Tired Is the Worst Kind of Lonely**

You awoke staring up at blurry glow-in-the-dark stars on your ceiling. Sometime during the day, you had kicked almost half of the sopor slime out of your recuperacoon, leaving you shivering in the early evening air of your respiteblock. It was still light outside.

Groaning, you turned to face the clock to see the time. That too was blurry; you put on your glasses.

4:13 pm. Jeez. There was no way you were going to be able to go back to sleep. You got out of bed and put a t-shirt on—you really ought to stop sleeping in just your boxers, it’s getting too cold for that—and turned on your husktop. When it was up and running, you logged in on your blog and sat there, trying to think of what to write.

A few minutes passed, and you gave up. You were exhausted and too tired to sleep. From your bed you could hear the crashing of waves on the rocks and sand below your hive. You opened the window beside you and let the sea breeze in, the salt and brine scents calming you. Fef had once asked you why you didn’t live under the water like she did; you told her that it was so you could become closer to being a land-dweller so it was easier to kill them, but the truth was that you were afraid of the water.

You laughed at that. A sea-dweller, afraid of the water? Who would ever take you seriously if they knew that? No-one, that’s who.

The clock flashed 4:30 pm. Great. Time was moving slower that you could bear; you put on jeans and a cardigan and slipped out your window, landing softly on the sand below. Your hive was a giant shipwreck—literally. The ship was an old sail ship, once full of grandeur and gleaming wood. Now, the only grandeur to be seen was in your room, and you never let anyone in there, not even your lusus. The wood of the ship was weathered by the sea winds and still splintered where the ship had split in two when it had crashed so many sweeps ago.

The land surrounding your hive wasn’t very large; just a tiny island in the great big sea. You live in a particularly stormy part of Alternia—lightning was always flashing and you can’t remember the last time you saw a speck of sun here. It was gloomy, but you kept telling yourself that it was better that way.

You stopped at the edge of the water, waves lapping at the shore. You once had a bench right here where you and Fef sat together, telling funny stories to each other. But that was back when you two were still moirails. You weren’t, any more. She broke it off, you broke the bench and tossed it into the sea, and you’ve been moping ever since. But she always made this place seem a little brighter somehow, and you still couldn’t help but feel sad. She had been your only friend, after all. And that bench had been really comfortable, too.

A giant silhouette appeared on the horizon. It was Gamzee’s lusus, once again out in the ocean and leaving Gamzee alone to fend for himself. That was a real problem, because no-one ever taught him to never litter, and you were always picking up Faygo bottles and tin pans out of the ocean. Fuckin’ land-dwwellers.

You watched as Goat-dad slipped beneath the water. Or maybe he just disappeared beyond the horizon, you didn’t know. He was gone, and you had one less thing to bother your mind.

The wind shifted, and cold air suddenly blew all around you. Shivering, you quickly walked back to your hive. Maybe now you’d finally get some sleep.

You didn’t.

\------------

Later that evening, when normal people were waking up, the shadows beneath your eyes were darker than normal. You had been staring at your ceiling for the remainder of the day, the timepiece blinking away the minutes slower than you thought possible. It was unnerving, and you were so happy when your alarm rang at 6:00 pm telling you to get ready for the night. But now you really couldn’t care less about what you had to do today, because now you were tired. And very, very cranky.

You had headed over to the Lotifewich Metropolis Library to brush up on some magic spells, but you noticed your ex-kismesis Sollux and another lowblood you didn’t recognize in the research section. How the hell did they get into a highblood private library, anyways? Only those with a registered membership card could get in!

Regardless, you didn’t feel like talking to either of them right now, so you walked away. You were just going to have to do your research later, then. You walked aimlessly around the highbloodblood city for a good part of the day. It was only around midnight that you sat down and ate a sandwich you bought off a jadeblood-owned kiosk. You had stopped to eat at a surprisingly poorly-lit park, long shadows crisscrossing the paths and creating deeper shadows, but now you weren’t hungry. You kept staring at the sandwich in your hand, wondering what the hell was wrong with you. Were you hungry, or not? Were you sleepy, or just exhausted? Cod _dammit_ , get a hold of yourself and your life!

“Hey there, you okay?”

A voice startled you from your currently pathetic thought process. Looking up, you saw the face of a particularly beautiful rustblood. Long wavy black hair and curling horns, and beautiful burgundy eyes lined in scarlet eyeliner. You didn’t think such beauty was possible for a lowblood, let alone a rustblood, to possess.

“I said, are you okay? You were strangling that sandwich in you hands, there.” She looked more worried now.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m good. Just… Thinkin’ to myself.”

The rustblood giggled. “About what?”

“None of your fuckin’ business, that’s what.”

She frowned. “Alright. Just checking. Can’t have one of the nobility going insane; it’s bad news for us lowbloods.” She started walking away, long black skirt sashaying down the path.

“Um, wait—what’s your name?”

“None of your fuckin’ business, that’s what,” she mimicked, and with a humorous glint in her eyes she disappeared into the shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as i said in the beginning notes, "Lotifewich" (pronounced as Lo-ti-fe-wik) is an ambigram of "Witch of Life" and is the royal city where the Empress and Feferi live.


	2. Looking for A Moirail? This One’s No Good.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eridan goes to a ritzy club and restaurant, overhears some gossip about the Heiress and her current flushed quadrant, and he get's annoyed with Feferi's apparent success and how she's not giving him a second thought. he almost gets back into a kismestude with Terezi, but how's that going to work out?
> 
> The canon fantrolls are mentioned, but don't play a big part (yet?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> references the beta trolls as gods or characters of legend or myth

**Chapter 2 – Looking for A Moirail? This One’s No Good.**

The rest of the night wasn’t any better. Tossing away your uneaten sandwich, you ventured into the city. Skipping the midblood hangouts and heading straight to the center of the city where the best clubs and restaurants were, you hoped here you could at least enjoy yourself and maybe catch a quadrant or two.

You passed many clubs, but none of them suited your tastes. They all were still too low-class for you and you ignored all the pretty trolls trying to coax you inside. Finally, in a slightly more ritzy part of town, you reached the finest club and restaurant in all of Western Alternia—the Tyrian Lagoon. The food there is said to be the finest, freshest there is, and you can certainly vouch for that. You’ve come here many a time before, sometimes even just to watch the chefs and cooks do their work. Of course, the staff is only cerulean- and tealbloods—any lower on the hemospectrum than that and the midblood wouldn’t last an hour among the hecticness of the kitchen and occasionally violent antics of the nobleblood patrons, and any higher and it would be considered degrading to work here, regardless of how fancy the place was. You remember when you used to hate-tease the tealbloods serving you your meals.

Well, until Fef had had enough of your teasing and never came here with you again.

Ah look, one of your past hate-flings, Terezi Pyrope! She’s a lovely girl, training to become a legislacerator and working here as a side-job. Poor thing’s at the bottom of the highblood hierarchy and only barely making minimum wage. Oh well, better pay here than at a lowblood establishment.

“Hey, Tez,” you say to her as you approach the front desk. She’s working hostess right now, it seems. “How about you set me up with my regular table and chat a while?”

“Sorry, fuckass, but I got a job to do. And some indigoblood’s at “your” table and he was just served, so you’re gonna have to wait a god-damn while before he’s done.” She looked over your shoulder and lowered her voice. “Move it, Ampora, there’s nobles behind you waitin’ to get in.”

“Fuck you, Tez, I’ll wait. And watch your tongue with me or I’ll have it cut off.”

She laughed. “What, like the mythical Prince of Rage? Sorry, but I’d like to keep my mouth un-stitched please. But fine, I’ll set you up in the Violet Room. Better than nothing.” Terezi shouted to another tealblood to help seat the others in line while she brought you to the Violet Room. “Come on, Ampora, your highness.”

Now, despite you being a violet-blooded seadweller, you had never stepped foot in the Violet Room. The only times you had actually been to the Tyrian Lagoon was with Fef, and you sat in the Tyrian Room or on the balcony patio overlooking the harbor. Which was your favorite seat, and you hope that the troll who commandeered the balcony had severe indigestion tomorrow.

The Violet Room was slightly less furnished with gold statues and gemstone carvings than the Tyrian Room, but only a troll who had been in there would notice a difference. On Every wall there was at least one painting that took up half the space and was framed in an ornate gold-leaf wooden frame, and all were created by some of the most famous and esteemed artists in the world, most of which were still alive and served in the palace, creating portraits of the Empress and her heir.

There were framed mirrors around the room as well, so patrons could freshen their makeup or adjust their grand attire if needed. You looked at yourself in one mirror and thought the shadows under your eyes had gotten the tiniest bit darker.

“Here you are, sir.” In this room, Terezi had to use proper honorifics and titles; otherwise she’d get beaten so badly, management would use her blood to chum the water for sharks. “Tonight’s specials are swordbeast steaks marinated in lemon and various spices, various types of shellmeat sautéed in butter, and the finest moobeast steaks cooked to your personal preferences. What would you like this evening?”

You thought about it. Noblebloods only ever chose from the specials. “I’ll have the shellmeat in butter, with strongly brewed seedfruit tea. The whole pot, too.” Terezi nodded and walked away. “And make it snappy!” you shouted towards her retreating back. She nodded again.

And she actually came back quickly, much to your surprise. You thought that she’d purposefully lag a bit just to make you angry.

“Thanks, Tez.”

“Hey,” she whispered. “You don’t thank the staff, remember?”

“Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve been here, I guess.”

“No shit. And stop calling me ‘Tez’.” She walked away and let you eat your food in stony silence. All around you, couples in fine clothes ate their dinners while chattering away, and tongues slowly loosening due to the consumption of alcohol. At some point you heard a violetblood in a black silk top hat mention something that made your fins prick up.

“Yeah, the Heiress is dinning with a fuckin’ land-dwelling indigoblood on the private balcony. Don’t know why he’s special enough to be her date, but I’m not going to argue. She can choose who she dates.”

Your fins grew hot. That was your fuckin’ balcony! Well, it was when you were with Fef, that is. A different highblood, this one female, spoke up, and you paid closer attention.

“I hear that he’s one of those clown cultists; he even wore his face paint to dinner.” Gasps went around the room; apparently you weren’t the only one listening. The blueblood noticed this and spoke louder, enjoying the spotlight. “Yes, it’s true, I saw him when I arrived! Curving horns, unkempt hair, I could just _smell_ the richness of his blood! I’ve even heard that he’s officially her _matesprite_!”

More gasps were heard, and you let out one as well. “Do you know his name?” you asked aloud. Every pair of eyes turned to focus on yours. Big mistake, now they’d all recognize you.

Amazingly, none of them do. “His name, I believe, is Gamzee Makara,” replied the female cerulean. “Not that his name would do you any good. He’s just a phase she’s going through, I bet. Nothing to get your gills shredded over.”

You thanked her for the information, quickly finished the assortment of shellmeat and downed a cup of tea before walking out the room. You couldn’t believe that Fef was dating that land-dweller! She’d apparently listened to you when you complained about his littering and that smug pretty face of his.

Terezi called out to you before you left. “Sir, you forgot to leave a check!”

“Right, uh, just put it on my tab! I’ll pay it next time I come here!” and you rushed out the door, but not before you heard her whisper a soft “Yeah, right” to herself.

Land-dwellers were always fuckin’ up your life, everywhere you turned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vocab:  
> -shellmeat: lobster, crab, mussels, etc.  
> -swordbeast: swordfish  
> -moobeast: cow


End file.
